Paris, snow, and the best laid plans...

Back in October I booked a couple of train tickets to Paris for my Mum's birthday. We headed off on our jaunt on the first week of the new year, had a lovely time being culture-vultures in the biting cold, hoping from museum to cafe to museum. Then we tried to get on our train home.



It was cancelled.

The queue for the 3 previous departures went all the way round the Gare du Nord. There was no way we were getting back to London that night. But, you know, Paris isn't such a bad place to be stranded for a day longer than anticipated! We sauntered back to our hotel, which fortunately still had a room available, had a lovely meal of houmous, olives, tapenade and fresh crusty french bread, a couple of glasses of red wine in the cafe round the corner, and resolved to try again the next day.

I was convinced we would spend all day queueing for a train, so we fortified ourselves with coffee and croissants, bought quiche and biscuits from the bakery on the corner, and headed back to face the Eurostar.

Finally arriving home through the snow at 8pm (not too late considering the circumstances), after a magical mystery tour of northern France I realised we had virtually no vegetables and because of the thick snow no vegetable box had been delivered. That left us with a cooking apple and some red cabbage until I next felt ready to tackle the snowy roads. Still, the red cabbage looked like a nice one, and I'd been meaning to try out a braised/pickled red cabbage recipe for a while. Recipe of the week was decided by default.



Dan was really enthusiastic about how this turned out. It was delicately spiced, fruity, with enough sharpness to keep it interesting. Often when I've had red cabbage cooked in this way the fruit and spice have overwhelmed the flavour of the cabbage, but the quantities in this recipe didn't do that.

We had it with roast chicken, and the next week I reheated it to have with pheasant casserole. I've had it with turkey in the past, and Dan tells me it goes well with beef too. I think it would also be tasty served cold, so all in all quite a versatile recipe.

Apple and spice Red Cabbage

1 dessertspoon olive oil
1/2 a red cabbage, finely sliced
1 medium sized cooking apple, peeled, cored and diced
3 tablespoon apple juice
Dark brown muscovado sugar
Cider Vinegar
Cinnamon
6 cloves
1/2 handful of raisins or sultanas
salt & pepper

Put the olive oil into a heavy bottomed saucepan and swirl it around until it coats the whole base. Put 1/3 of the red cabbage into the pan and spread it out to form an even layer. Put 1/3 of the apple in a layer on top of this, add about 2 teaspoons of sugar, then pour over 1 tablespoon of apple juice, drizzle over a small amount of cider vinegar, scatter on a couple of cloves and a shake of cinnamon, and season with salt and pepper. Repeat for 2 more layers, then sprinkle the raisins over the top and add a good slosh of cold water.

Bring to the boil over a low heat, then cover and simmer for about 2 1/2 hours. It doesn't need any attention to speak of during this time. I actually went out for a run and left it for a good 45 mins, but it might be a good idea to check it every half an hour or so and give it a good stir so that it doesn't dry out on top.

Enjoy.

PS look what a beautiful cake display we spotted in the Saint-Germain district of Paris! Pretty pretty....